SALT LAKE CITY - Conservative lawmakers opened a new effort Friday to repeal in-state college tuition rates for illegal immigrants' children who aren't born here but graduate from Utah high schools.

"Why are we going after a few hundred kids - less than 200 kids - when we have thousands here illegally?" protested Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay.

Moss was in the minority as the House Education Committee voted 9-5 for the repeal after an hourlong hearing that pitted calls for compassion against the rule of law.

It's the first time in four years of trying that Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, will have managed to get his bill to the full House for a vote. This time he's making exception for already-enrolled illegal immigrants; they'd remain eligible for the cheaper resident rate at Utah's nine public colleges and universities.

The University of Utah - the most expensive public school in the state- charges $4,298 in tuition and fees for full-time resident students and $13,370 for nonresidents, with higher rates for juniors and seniors. The Utah System of Higher Education said 182 students declared themselves illegal immigrants this academic year to qualify for cheaper rates at state schools.

More than 100 people packed a hearing room Friday at the Utah Capitol, where 26 people were given as little as one minute to state their case for or against the repeal.

One side was represented by Jose Rodriquez, a University of Utah law student who said he was an undocumented immigrant trying to become a U.S. citizen.

"I came to the U.S. at age 8 and ever since then, it's been a world of opportunity," said Rodriquez, who broke down recounting his younger brother's uncertain college prospects.

The other side was represented by Utah Minuteman Project founder Alex Segura, who said that when he returned with his family from California several years ago his son wasn't eligible for Utah's in-state tuition rates and couldn't afford college.

Segura said his son still can't afford it, even though he now qualifies as a Utah resident and is seeking tuition assistance.

Critics said it was unfair that a U.S. citizen just arriving in or returning to Utah had to pay more for college than an undocumented immigrant in Utah.

That's the crux of a lawsuit filed by Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who testified here Friday, but courts have so far refused to intervene.

Kobach filed suit against Kansas' giving some illegal immigrants a tuition break, claiming it violated federal immigration laws. His case was dismissed by a Kansas trial judge who ruled the students Kobach represented - U.S. citizens from outside Kansas, paying its higher tuition rates - had nothing to gain from the lawsuit.

Kobach, who is appealing, said states are rewarding lawbreakers when they grant tuition breaks to undocumented immigrants.

Others say that's a political question that won't be resolved until Congress acts to fix the immigration mess. Even repeal advocates conceded the point, with Donnelson urging members of Congress to "get off their duffs" and reconcile the status of millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Utah enacted the tuition waiver law in 2002, and Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who took office in 2004, has said he would veto any attempt to repeal it. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, also opposes any repeal, one of his deputies, Bill Evans, testified Friday.

Moss said advocates for denying immigrant students favorable tuition rates were in effect deciding their careers, telling immigrants "you can mow lawns" but can't aspire to a professional calling.

"Don't end the dream for these young people," she said.